Vaping Digest 30th November

Monday’s News at a glance:

NNA Criticises New Paper and the Support – From one Momvocate to another – WA People support legalising vaping – E-cigarettes and nicotine pouches safer – Escalating Attack on THR Advocates – Lawmakers In U.S. city Anchorage, Alaska Moves To Include Vapes In Tobacco Tax – Where Bans Are Best; The Reverse Is True – A tax on our products amid Covid-19 pandemic will kill business – Nicotine Science and Policy Daily Digest

NNA Criticises New Paper and the Support

Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes

The New Nicotine Alliance (NNA) has criticised the British Medical Association (BMA) for publishing a study that smears consumer advocates and Cancer Research UK (CRUK) for promoting it. Last week’s research paper analysed tweets and insulted harm reduction advocates, accusing them of being part of Philip Morris International or one of its “allies”.

Planet of the Vapes covered the Bloomberg/CRUK-funded study last week [link].

Responding to the publication, the NNA said: “It is disappointing to see the BMJ publishing a research paper which smears consumer advocates for tobacco harm reduction by attempting to link consumer activity on social media with the tobacco industry. One can only conclude that the goal was to devalue the opinions of former smokers who have found safer nicotine products to have been beneficial to their lives.”

From one Momvocate to another

I wish we could do lunch and talk

The world is full of concerned Moms. It’s in our job description and many of us take that job very seriously. I’ve seen some of you on the news, watched you at Congressional hearings, have heard you testify before city council’s, and have seen your social media posts. I watched the movie You Don’t Know Nicotine and it taught me that there are 2 sides to every story. I learned a lot about your concerns from watching it. I could see the concern in your eyes and hear it in your voices. I know in the end we all want the same thing. We want our kids to be safe, healthy, and making good choices. We fear for their well being, their health, and even their lives.

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Lawmakers In U.S. city Anchorage

Moves To Include Vapes In Tobacco Tax – Michael McGrady

Lawmakers in the city of Anchorage, Alaska, in the United States, have reportedly moved toward including vapor products and electronic cigarettes into the city’s tobacco tax.
The Anchorage Assembly, the legislature for the city, approved a municipal ordinance to include vapes and e-cigarettes in the tobacco tax that’s currently on the books.

These products will then be taxed at a rate of 55 percent of the wholesale price. Liquids and cartridges are also covered in the tax, per this new law…. The ordinance passed unanimously, 10 votes to zero.

WA People support legalising vaping

ATHRA

In this modern age, petitions which legally require people to sign a piece of paper seem archaic. They are also difficult to organise. Yet today I was proud to hand over to Aaron Stonehouse MLC a petition to the West Australian parliament calling for the legalisation of vaping.

Some 7176 signatures were obtained making it only slightly short of the number signed in support of voluntary assisted deaths laws. This petition was part of what led to a change in laws in WA. The politicians listened.

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E-cigarettes and nicotine pouches safer

Joseph Magero

Everyone wants to reduce the approximately 30,000 annual tobacco-related deaths in Kenya; so it’s especially disappointing to see the naysayers undermining our best opportunity to do just that.

Tobacco harm reduction products, such as e-cigarettes and tobacco-free nicotine pouches, are quickly proving to be the most effective and safest alternatives for smokers who want to switch from cigarettes, but who want to continue enjoying nicotine or who are struggling to quit altogether.

Where Bans Are Best; The Reverse Is True

Joel Sawa

After reading the misguided recommendations of The Union’s new position paper shared in May, ‘where bans are best: Why LMICs must prohibit e-cigarettes and heated tobacco product sales to truly tackle tobacco’. This grossly misleading document points to only one direction the establishment of a systemic fight against electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco products. This is a well-orchestrated campaign to create and capitalize on moral panic and undermine the gains of the vaping community as well as the greater Tobacco Harm Reduction front and their phenomenal exploits. This document presents 10 justifications for their position ranging from industry involvement, targeting of teens/minors and several others including the creation of an addiction avenue among other evils.

Escalating Attack on THR Advocates

RegWatch

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Vape shop operators:

A tax on our products amid Covid-19 pandemic will kill business

The vape culture in Malaysia has seen tremendous growth since its introduction here about nine years ago. It has been reported that the value of the vaping market here is estimated at RM2 billion.

An estimated one million people smoke e-cigarettes or vapes in Malaysia and most rely on their neighbourhood vape shop for their “juice” or vape liquids. There are a myriad of choices of brands and flavours as Malaysia is one of the leading producers of vape liquids worldwide.

Weekly Vape News Sunday November 29th

Neil Humber

Bloomberg Anti-Vaping Study Slammed – CRUK Under Fire – Vaping Beats Cancer – Aussie Government “Full Of Crap!” – Plus More Vaping News

Peter Attia:

“I Definitely Lost a Lot of IQ Points That Day” (People I (Mostly) Admire)

He’s been an engineer, a surgeon, a management consultant, and even a boxer. Now he’s a physician focused on the science of longevity. Peter Attia talks with Steve Levitt about the problem with immortality, what’s missing from our Covid response, and why nicotine is underrated.

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On this Day…2019

A look back at how things have moved on or otherwise…

Reports of US lung disease outbreak

And links to vaping – So what does it mean for the UK and our pragmatic approach in Sheffield?

Sarah Hepworth & Greg Fell – Smokefree Sheffield

Following reports of an outbreak in the US of serious lung disease and recent deaths linked to vaping the US Centre Disease Control (CDC) have discouraged people from vaping and there are moves to ban them in various US states such as San Francisco. Countries across the world such as Australia have already followed this line. The debate on e-cigarettes for and against is at its height and has become even more polarising than before. So what should we make of the US position and what does it mean for the UK?

A full investigation is not yet available but early indications are that these cases in the US have been linked to people using illicit vaping fluid bought on the streets or homemade, with many containing cannabis products like THC or synthetic cannabinoids like Spice, and others i.e. Vitamin E acetate oil.

Banning e-cigarettes is not the answer

Regulations must be based on market specific risk proportions:

Dr. Konstantinos Farsalinos – Daily News Egypt

Once e-cigarettes enter the market, the population will immediately drop cigarettes for vaping, and governments will lose out on a huge source of tax revenue

It’s clear that US cases of acute lung injury happened because of using illegal marijuana products

Debates about the dangers of smoking and the rise of e-cigarettes as a substitution have been ongoing for a while. While some countries openly allow the traditional tobacco cigarettes, e-cigarettes have been restricted.

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